The 5 Best Games On Oculus Rift

Dave Thier
, ContributorI write about video games and technology.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

You might, finally, have gotten your Oculus Rift. Facebook's new VR platform had some manufacturing issues, but the company seems to be well on its way to filling preorders, and by this point most of the people I know that want a Rift have one. That leaves us with another problem, however. The Rift is not just a piece of hardware, it's a platform, and as such it's just no good without developers stacking the thing with software for us to play. So if you're staring at that Oculus storefront, pretty though it may be, with no idea what to buy, here's some guidance on five games worth picking up:

image credit: CCP

Eve: Valkyrie: CCP's space shooter is a ten-year old's starfighter fantasy. On a fundamental level, you know what you're getting here: the opportunity to fly around shooting things in space.virtual reality. It looks great, it feels great, and anyone who ordered an Oculus will already have a copy. It's not everything I would have hoped: a paucity of game modes and no single player means that this is far from the definitive space sim in VR. But what's there is excellent, and if multipalyer, team-based deathmatches are your thing, you'll be right at home here.

image credit: oculus VR

Defense Grid: A tower defense game doesn't seem like it would be the ideal fit for virtual reality, but there's something entrancing about this updated game ported over to the VR. You are a god of sorts, looking down at your tabletop and watching your systems execute the little enemies with precision and grace. In some ways, VR allows you to play the ultimate board game, and the unreality of the looking down at a virtual tabletop is an easier transition into VR than attempting to emulate real experiences. That, and the little tokens hidden in the stages have me salivating for a hidden object game in VR.

image: steel crate games

Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes: Local multiplayer in virtual reality feels Ike something of a contradiction in terms: if you wanted to play a game with other people, maybe strapping a headset to your face isn't a great way to go. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes challenges that idea. The VR-bound player is placed before a virtual bomb, and the the other players have to give him or her instructions without being able to see it themselves. It's an adaptation of a classic team building game, and an excellent way to expand the capabilities of your headset in an interesting way.